Member's Off-site Blogs

how the system works... leadership from the nag's mouth...

Here, in his book, LEADERSHIP, (published 2002) Rudolph W Giuliani exposes the flaws of the system, without knowing it. If he could foresee what happened after this, would his choice be different, including switch to the other side? Al Gore? Or have these choices nothing to do with "ability", "policies", "understanding" and all to do with "populism", "connections" and "partisanship"?

This a turning moment in which the question is "which back am I going to scratch, to get the most out of?" Subconsciously, the choice is done from a single point of view and an apparent LACK OF KNOWLEDGE (often deliberate ignorance). Which is the most pressing urgency at the time? Economic fluff, war with whomever (as desired by both McCain and Bush) or global warming? Protect coal/oil/gas and destroy the planet eventually or bite the bullet and spend time with real scientists to study the incoming onslaught, and manage a better policy?

Most leaders, like Giuliani, hover in their little club of mates and will make choices not so much on what is best for the people but on which side their bread is buttered on. Now Rudolph, obviously an intelligent person, works for Donald Trump, though sometimes he appears to work against him.

But this contradiction is the important part of the Trump hamburger. Layers of hot and cold stuff, including salty beef and sweet buns. It's confused. But you have a bit of salad with a dressing full of preservatives. How can one make "leadership" out of this? Trump wants to get closer to the Russians and distrust — as he should — the US "intelligence agencies". They write bullshit most of the time. Presently through Russia-gate, the bullshit is also directed against him, so he has to know it's bullshit, but the other side is like a pack of dogs fighting for a bone. So Trump does other crazy things. Trump did not like John McCain, but now he's using John Bolton to do some dirty work with sabre rattling, and promises of war. This is not leadership. This is preparing for organised murder.

Giuliani got a break with 9/11... He shined and did the best possible job than one could. A donkey could have done as well. All one had to do was to point the finger or place a hoof in the right direction and the system would get in motion. The only thing that were badly handled was fire-people going inside the building and some fire-people telling the residents to stay inside the damage building. Bugger this. The situation was critical. It's everybody GET OUT. THERE WAS NO WAY THAT FIRE-PEOPLE could get to "where the fires were" and the buildings were not SAFE. Then the clean up had to handled with care... Too much toxicity in the air.

But Giuliani got away with looking busy like a fly in a jar while most people were doing THE job.

That's what some leaders do best: nothing much except massage the news and praise the courage of those who did the job and those who lost their life so bravely. Back to back-scratching...

One can understand the dilemma of leadership: be part of the conspiratorial trick or not? As well his office got some ANTHRAX received on a smeared video cassette sent from Tom Brokaw's office at NBC. And he had quite a few funerals to attend, after going to watch Yankee games in their 6 and 7th games of the "world series"... and he also had to start the New York Marathon as well... And he had to show support to Israel by traveling to Jerusalem in December with Mayor-elect Bloomberg to meet his friends Sharon and Olmert, after Israel had a few suicide bombings...

Here despite what "the Prince" said in his press release, Giuliani recognised that this, 9/11, was not about the Palestinian fight but about what the USA stood for. So he rejected the donation. From there they developed a snazzy campaign:

" The New York Miracle. Be a Part of It"

This is how one creates legends while not having all the facts in hand... From then on, Bush, his choice for the presidentur, went on to attack Afghanistan and invade Iraq under false pretences. We know that the Anthrax came from the USA, but this was used to demonise Saddam. We knew Saddam did not have WMDs, but the "intelligence agencies fabricated a story"...

President Trump and recently-deceased five-term Republican Senator from Arizona John S. McCain had been at loggerheads long before the former's presidential inauguration, and it seems like the status-quo has not changed even after McCain's death.

According to the Washington Post, this Sunday Trump rejected a statement made by White House staffers which aimed to praise McCain as a “hero” and give him credit for his military service. The final statement was edited by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, chief of staff John Kelly and other White House aides over the weekend.

Trump declined to release the statement, saying that he preferred to tweet his condolences. The US president’s tweet following McCain’s death on Saturday, in which he did not offer many kind words for the Republican maverick. "My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain," Trump tweeted after reports confirmed that McCain had died. "Our hearts and prayers are with you!"

“I owe it to America to be connected to America’s causes: liberty, equal justice, respect for the dignity of all people — brings happiness more sublime than life’s fleeting pleasures. Our identities and sense of worth are not circumscribed but are enlarged by serving good causes bigger than ourselves. Fellow Americans: that association has meant more to me than any other,”

...

“We are 325 million opinionated vociferous individuals. We argue and compete and sometimes even vilify each other in our raucous public debates. But we have always had so much more in common with each other than in disagreement,” the letter continued. “If only we remember that and give each other the benefit of the presumption that we all love our country, we will get through these challenging times.”

...

“Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history. Farewell, fellow Americans. God bless you, and God bless America.”

Not only New York suffers from having its own Trump conservative support decadence and having its newspaper rivalry between up-market porkies against Trump and Murdoch's crass discreet support for Trump, it seems it suffers from a too polished wellness-fatigue...

But according to journalist and author Kevin Baker, New York City — that gleaming manifestation of capital — is not what it once was.

The city, he says, is dying a slow, undignified death.

Today tourist-lined streets are filled with boutique cupcake shops and Starbucks, 7-Elevens and condominiums rising from the rubble of older and more egalitarian housing; buildings with amenities like "adult tree-houses" and "ensuite parking".

For the first time in history, Baker says, New York City is boring.

Baker, who has lived there for decades, wrote an article for Harper's giving a devastating account of what he describes as the "wholesale destruction of the public city".

Affluence, he argues, has transformed the city into a kind of mausoleum, a monocultural "gated community", accessible only to the super rich.

"This is not a plea for going back to poverty of dysfunction", he says, "it's simply how, weirdly enough, affluence [has created] more of [it]".

"My neighbourhood, which has [become] increasingly affluent, [is] full of condos and co-ops that sell for over a million dollars nonetheless, about a third of the store frontage ... is empty and much of it has been for months or even years.

"It looks, in some ways, just about as poor as it was 40 years ago when I moved there. Maybe worse."

In the days of the leader of leaders, this may not have happened... In his chapter called "Underpromise and Overdeliver", Giuliani tells he had a tight rein on the city finances to avoid a blow-out in "unnecessary expenditures" to "maintain a frugal culture, even during flush times" even when "...there were occasions when it might have been to my political benefit to assume much higher revenues."

I don't know what the city budget is presently, but under mayor Giuliani, it was hovering around 40+ plus a lot of zeros behind to make it billions — and this including emptying the garbage... Since then it appears that the city has gone richer. It's also well known that too many tourists tend to destroy the place they come to see — or at least turn it into an amusement park.

In Trump’s America the 17th anniversary of September 11 was under way, and a giant hurricane bearing down on the Carolina coast.

The Pussy-Grabber-in-Chief started the day with a couple of tweets that some thought not entirely in keeping with what was happening: “We have found nothing to show collusion between President Trump & Russia, absolutely zero, but every day we get more documentation showing collusion between the FBI & DOJ, the Hillary campaign, foreign spies & Russians, incredible.”

That one was straight out of Fox News rants and raves the night before.

Then there was: “Rudy Giuliani did a GREAT job as Mayor of NYC during the period of September 11th. His leadership, bravery and skill must never be forgotten. Rudy is a TRUE WARRIOR!”

Yes, Rudy is up there with the heroes who stopped United Airlines Flight 93 ploughing into the Congress or the White House and instead brought it down in a field in Pennsylvania.

When Trump and his “First” Lady arrived at the Pennsylvania memorial there was a mighty display of presidential pumped fists and thumbs-up for the astonished assembly.

There’s nothing quite like solemn anniversaries that can be turned into political bombast.

The US president’s personal lawyer said that the US sanctions on Iran could lead to the the overthrow of the Iranian government.

Speaking in his own capacity at a hotel in Times Square this Saturday, Giuliani noted, contrasting to the US administration official position, that the current implementation of the economic sanctions could lead to a “successful revolution” and change of the Iranian government, Reuters reported.

“I don't know when we're going to overthrow them,” he said at an Iran Uprising Summit held by the Organization of Iranian-American Communities which opposes Iran policies, “It could be in a few days, months, a couple of years. But it's going to happen.”

Giuliani also suggested that the US sanctions are proved effective, noting that “The [Iranian] currency is going to nothing… these are the kinds of conditions that lead to successful revolution,” echoing his own words to the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran, where he said that Trump’s policy would “suffocate Iran's ayatollahs.”

The US State Department told Reuters that Giuliani does not speak for the administration on Iran. Earlier in August Trump's National Security Adviser John Bolton said that the US wants a massive change of Iran government’s behavior, noting, however that “regime change” in Iran was not the aim of the American policy.